By submitting your email address, you understand that you will receive email communications from Bible Gateway, a division of The Zondervan Corporation, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 USA, including commercial communications and messages from partners of Bible Gateway. You may unsubscribe from Bible Gateway’s emails at any time. If you have any questions, please review our Privacy Policy or email us at privacy@biblegateway.com.

14 The Lord will have compassion on Jacob;once again he will choose Israeland will settle them in their own land.Foreigners will join themand unite with the descendants of Jacob.2 Nations will take themand bring them to their own place.And Israel will take possession of the nationsand make them male and female servants in the Lord’s land.They will make captives of their captorsand rule over their oppressors.

3 On the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labor forced on you,4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

How the oppressor has come to an end!How his fury[a] has ended!5 The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked,the scepter of the rulers,6 which in anger struck down peopleswith unceasing blows,and in fury subdued nationswith relentless aggression.7 All the lands are at rest and at peace;they break into singing.8 Even the junipers and the cedars of Lebanongloat over you and say,“Now that you have been laid low,no one comes to cut us down.”

9 The realm of the dead below is all astirto meet you at your coming;it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you—all those who were leaders in the world;it makes them rise from their thrones—all those who were kings over the nations.10 They will all respond,they will say to you,“You also have become weak, as we are;you have become like us.”11 All your pomp has been brought down to the grave,along with the noise of your harps;maggots are spread out beneath youand worms cover you.

12 How you have fallen from heaven,morning star, son of the dawn!You have been cast down to the earth,you who once laid low the nations!13 You said in your heart,“I will ascend to the heavens;I will raise my throneabove the stars of God;I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.[b]14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;I will make myself like the Most High.”15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,to the depths of the pit.

16 Those who see you stare at you,they ponder your fate:“Is this the man who shook the earthand made kingdoms tremble,17 the man who made the world a wilderness,who overthrew its citiesand would not let his captives go home?”

18 All the kings of the nations lie in state,each in his own tomb.19 But you are cast out of your tomblike a rejected branch;you are covered with the slain,with those pierced by the sword,those who descend to the stones of the pit.Like a corpse trampled underfoot,20 you will not join them in burial,for you have destroyed your landand killed your people.

Let the offspring of the wickednever be mentioned again.21 Prepare a place to slaughter his childrenfor the sins of their ancestors;they are not to rise to inherit the landand cover the earth with their cities.

22 “I will rise up against them,”declares the Lord Almighty.“I will wipe out Babylon’s name and survivors,her offspring and descendants,”declares the Lord.23 “I will turn her into a place for owlsand into swampland;I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,”declares the Lord Almighty.

24 The Lord Almighty has sworn,

“Surely, as I have planned, so it will be,and as I have purposed, so it will happen.25 I will crush the Assyrian in my land;on my mountains I will trample him down.His yoke will be taken from my people,and his burden removed from their shoulders.”

26 This is the plan determined for the whole world;this is the hand stretched out over all nations.27 For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?

A Prophecy Against the Philistines

28 This prophecy came in the year King Ahaz died:

29 Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,that the rod that struck you is broken;from the root of that snake will spring up a viper,its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent.30 The poorest of the poor will find pasture,and the needy will lie down in safety.But your root I will destroy by famine;it will slay your survivors.

31 Wail, you gate! Howl, you city!Melt away, all you Philistines!A cloud of smoke comes from the north,and there is not a straggler in its ranks.32 What answer shall be givento the envoys of that nation?“The Lord has established Zion,and in her his afflicted people will find refuge.”

A Prophecy Against Moab

15 A prophecy against Moab:

Ar in Moab is ruined,destroyed in a night!Kir in Moab is ruined,destroyed in a night!2 Dibon goes up to its temple,to its high places to weep;Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba.Every head is shavedand every beard cut off.3 In the streets they wear sackcloth;on the roofs and in the public squaresthey all wail,prostrate with weeping.4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz.Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out,and their hearts are faint.

5 My heart cries out over Moab;her fugitives flee as far as Zoar,as far as Eglath Shelishiyah.They go up the hill to Luhith,weeping as they go;on the road to Horonaimthey lament their destruction.6 The waters of Nimrim are dried upand the grass is withered;the vegetation is goneand nothing green is left.7 So the wealth they have acquired and stored upthey carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars.8 Their outcry echoes along the border of Moab;their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim,their lamentation as far as Beer Elim.9 The waters of Dimon[c] are full of blood,but I will bring still more upon Dimon[d]—a lion upon the fugitives of Moaband upon those who remain in the land.

16 Send lambs as tributeto the ruler of the land,from Sela, across the desert,to the mount of Daughter Zion.2 Like fluttering birdspushed from the nest,so are the women of Moabat the fords of the Arnon.

3 “Make up your mind,” Moab says.“Render a decision.Make your shadow like night—at high noon.Hide the fugitives,do not betray the refugees.4 Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you;be their shelter from the destroyer.”

The oppressor will come to an end,and destruction will cease;the aggressor will vanish from the land.5 In love a throne will be established;in faithfulness a man will sit on it—one from the house[e] of David—one who in judging seeks justiceand speeds the cause of righteousness.

6 We have heard of Moab’s pride—how great is her arrogance!—of her conceit, her pride and her insolence;but her boasts are empty.7 Therefore the Moabites wail,they wail together for Moab.Lament and grievefor the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth.8 The fields of Heshbon wither,the vines of Sibmah also.The rulers of the nationshave trampled down the choicest vines,which once reached Jazerand spread toward the desert.Their shoots spread outand went as far as the sea.[f]9 So I weep, as Jazer weeps,for the vines of Sibmah.Heshbon and Elealeh,I drench you with tears!The shouts of joy over your ripened fruitand over your harvests have been stilled.10 Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards;no one sings or shouts in the vineyards;no one treads out wine at the presses,for I have put an end to the shouting.11 My heart laments for Moab like a harp,my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.12 When Moab appears at her high place,she only wears herself out;when she goes to her shrine to pray,it is to no avail.

13 This is the word the Lord has already spoken concerning Moab.14 But now the Lord says: “Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.”

Footnotes:

Isaiah 14:4Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint and Syriac; the meaning of the word in the Masoretic Text is uncertain.

Isaiah 14:13Or of the north; Zaphon was the most sacred mountain of the Canaanites.

Isaiah 15:9Dimon, a wordplay on Dibon (see verse 2), sounds like the Hebrew for blood.

Isaiah 15:9Dimon, a wordplay on Dibon (see verse 2), sounds like the Hebrew for blood.

5 1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.[a]6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.7 Therefore do not be partners with them.

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)10 and find out what pleases the Lord.11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.14 This is why it is said:

“Wake up, sleeper,rise from the dead,and Christ will shine on you.”

15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.